Perkins Stadium is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Whitewater, Wisconsin Whitewater is a city located in Walworth and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located near the southern portion of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Whitewater is the home of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. As of t ...

. Primarily used for

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

, it is the home field of the

University of Wisconsin–Whitewater The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (UW–Whitewater or UWW) is a public university in Whitewater, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System. As of Fall 2024, the university offers 47 undergraduate majors ...

Warhawks athletics teams. Opened in 1970 as "Warhawks Stadium", the facility originally held 11,000 people. It was renamed Perkins Stadium on September 14, 1996, in honor of former football coach Forrest Perkins. The stadium hosts the MACBDA Championships and the WSMA State Marching Band Championships.

Drum Corps International Drum Corps International (DCI) is a governing body for drum and bugle corps. Founded in 1971 and known as "marching music's major league," DCI develops and enforces rules of competition and judges at sanctioned drum and bugle corps competitions t ...

held its annual Drum & Bugle Corps World Championships at the stadium in 1972 and 1973. The stadium received new synthetic turf, bench areas, landscaping and other improvements, including upgrades to the entrance area and scoreboard, in 2008. With this upgrade the new

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

is now at 13,500, making it the largest stadium in

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

. On October 3, 2015, a record crowd of 15,287 was recorded for a game. That mark was shattered on October 8, 2016, when the Warhawks defeated the

University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

17–14 in front of a crowd of 17,535 fans, then broken again on October 13, 2022, for a Friday night game between the same teams with 18,951 in attendance. The record was broken again at the October 7, 2023 game against the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where 20,113 people were in attendance. That not only broke the previous Perkins Stadium record, but also broke the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

record for attendance. On September 23, 2017, the NCAA record was broken by a St. Thomas vs. Saint John's contest that was hosted at

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. It is named for Tar ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. However, the October 2023 game maintains the largest crowd for a Division III game played at a non-neutral site.

References

External links

*
Aerial View of Perkins Stadium
College football venues in Wisconsin Wisconsin–Whitewater Warhawks football Whitewater, Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Walworth County, Wisconsin 1970 establishments in Wisconsin Sports venues completed in 1970 Sports in the Milwaukee metropolitan area {{Wisconsin-sports-venue-stub